I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of exercising devices and more particularly, to a device which not only exercises the wrists and arms of the person utilizing it, but also exercises the upper body of the person, in particular, the pectoral muscles.
II. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that exercise of the arms and upper body is particularly helpful and beneficial to persons engaged in certain athletic pursuits where the arm and upper body muscles are constantly being utilized during the athletic endeavor. It is also desired that such devices be adapted for a wide range of persons utilizing them according to individual physique and particular exercising needs.
There have been numerous patents in the prior art which describe various types of hand-gripping exercise devices and particularly those in which hand grips are rotated relative to one another to compress or twist a spring which offers resistence to the torsional movement.
Typically, the devices of prior art are so constructed that the individual hand grips are designed to rotate relative to one another and when such a movement is performed, the person doing the exercising either compresses or twists a spring within the tubular hand grips thereby causing resistence to the rotational movement of the hand grips. Such exercise will normally only strengthen and condition the arm muscles. To condition other muscles of the upper body, such as the pectoral muscles, there needs to be some provision by which the person exercising may not only rotate the hand grips relative to one another, but move the hand grips axially toward one another against a resistence. The patents typical of the prior art have not addressed such a situation.